The Spanish banking sector has experienced large-scale transformations throughout the last decade as a consequence of factors such as: deregulation, disintermediation, innovation, and the European Monetary Union. Faced with these changes, banks have been forced to redesign their strategies and reorganise their structures in order to meet the new conditions of competition. It must be determined, however, if the accounting information systems for the management of these organisations have been adapted to these new competitive conditions. This investigation tries to evaluate the management accounting systems in Spanish savings banks. In order to do this, an empirical investigation has been carried out which has reviewed the different components of management accounting systems, both the traditional systems and those using the most recent developments in that area. This has enabled us to identify limitations and propose the most ideal characteristics of management accounting for these companies.